MERRYLANDS HIGH SCHOOL
Term 2 - November 2014
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` Bristol Street Merrylands 2160 Phone: 9632 9401 Fax: 9892 2704 www.merryland-h.schools.nsw.edu.au
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Safe Respectful Learners
June 2014
Prestigious Scholarships for some of Merrylands High School’s finest Scholars At a gala event hosted by the Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore and attended by Education Minister Adrian Piccoli, Merrylands High School students, both past and present, were honoured with a range of scholarships from the Public Education Foundation.
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Read the full article and see photos of all the winners on page 2
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Merrylands High School Scholars By Saagar Goundar and Danny Di Quattro On the 20th of May 2014, seven outstanding students from Merrylands High School were awarded scholarships at the illustrious Public Education Foundation Awards Night at the Sydney Town Hall. Scholarships were awarded to Angela Omari, Ilyas Omari, Sahr Conteh, Patricia Grech, Fahima Ali and also ex students Samira Hussaini and Asra Safar. These scholarships assist these talented, hard working students to continue with their studies. Award recipients were also given the opportunity to meet the Hon Michael Kirby and State Minister for Education Adrian Piccoli MP. ‘This has enhanced my learning immensely. I will be able to use the scholarship money to buy many important resources such as text books�, said Angela.
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Browse Your Future Career By Danny Di Quattro On Monday 7th April, the Make Your Mark website was launched at Merrylands High School by the Minister for Hunam Services, Senator Marise Payne. This new government website puts valuable information about courses and careers at the fingertips of students. At the launch, students met representatives from many universities and had the opportunity to chat with them. ‘There are plenty of opportunities after school, and the website helps you discover what’s out there” said Angela from Year 12. The launch was wonderfully successful and all those involved trust the website will be a valuable resource to students, teachers and parents.
Clockwise from above: Minister For Human Services, Senator Marise Paine, Ms Mularczyk, School Captain Heba Niem and “Bridges to Higher Education Coordinator Annette Cairndorf help launch the “Mark your Mark” Website. Below: Yr 12 students who helped launch and road test the websie
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Lest We Forget By Danny Di Quattro
In early term 2, Merrylands High commemorated Anzac day with their annual school ceremony. Our students were again reminded that Anzac day is an opportunity for Australians, New Zealanders and Turkish people to remember the sacrifices of those who fought at Gallipoli. Merrylands High was again very fortunate to have three defence force cadets, from amongst our student population, play a significant role in the commemoration. These students are Veronica Nicolich and Felwah Alhajri who are both Airforce cadets and Mikaela Borg a member of the Army cadet corp. The many traditional elements of the ceremony, including the playing of The Last Post and Reveille, the lowering of the flag to half mast, the recitation of the oath and the laying of a wreath helped make the ceremony moving and relevant to the students.
Merrylands High School Students and Defence Force Cadets Veronica Nicolich, Felwah Alhajri and Mikaela Borg participating in the MHS ANZAC ceremony.
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First Act of Reconciliation By Liam Murphy On the 2nd of May, Merrylands students travelled to Prospect Hill to mark the First Act of Reconciliation. Reconciliation Day is about improving the relationship between Aboriginal Australians and the broader community. VIP’s included Uncle Steven Williams, Uncle Richard, Aunty Carroll, Julie Owens MP, and a representative from Holroyd council. There were speeches, cultural dances, including one by a local member of the Darug tribe, and a special smoking ceremony to welcome all the guests to Prospect Hill. The First Act of Reconciliation marks a small step in facing our nation’s past and moving forward in a positive direction.
Merrylands Students with Julie Owens MP
Uncle Stephen welcomes Merrylands students onto Darug Land
Taking Our Best to the Sydney West Dance Festival By Samantha Barnes After many weeks of endless rehearsals, it was fabulous to be given the opportunity to perform at the prestigious Sydney West Dance Festival. Our group performed a comical routine based upon world renown comic Charlie Chaplain and named ourselves ‘The Chaplains’. It was an amazing experience as we got to share this performance with a number of other primary and high schools on a professional stage. It was enormous fun working with students from all year groups, and I would gladly take part in this amazing experience again. All of this could not have happened if not for the hard work and dedication of Ms Gentilli, and I’d like to thank her on behalf of all the girls who took part.
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Students Give Back in a Big Way By Amore Ghamraoui & Alexzandria Frangie ‘Champions of the West’ is an initiative where individuals and groups compete for twelve grants, each worth $10,000, to invest in projects which benefit the community. Grants are awarded based on the ingenuity of the project and support received from the public. Looking to give back to their school, ex students Anthony Hanna, James Hanna and Alisa Roberts applied for grants on behalf of MHS. We’d like to thank Anthony, James and Alisa for their commitment and willingness to contribute to our School, and we wish them the best of luck. Past students Anthony and James Hanna
Article from the ‘Parramatta Advertiser’
STOP PRESS – MERRYLANDS HIGH SCHOOL WINS $10,000 GRANT We are pleased to inform our readers that just prior to printing Anthony, James and Alisa’s submission for the $10,000 grant to implement a sustainable health and fitness program at Merrylands High School had been announced as the successful proposal. Congratulations!
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Students Chase Gold at the Merrylands Athletics Carnival By Amore Ghamraoui, Faith Aljaberi & Rhakeecha Taratola Earlier this term, Merrylands High School hosted their annual athletics carnival. Students had the opportunity to take part in a variety of sporting events and competitions. An exhausted Jason ElSamad from Yr 8, who raced in the 100m, 200m, 800m while also tackling some field events, commented on how much he enjoyed the competition and the wonderful atmosphere ‘The events were challenging and exiting�, he said. Students proudly wore their house colours and cheered for their classmates. Overall, the house of Bradman won the honour as Champion House. While all the staff members and students who participated in this great day deserve praise, it is particularly important to again acknowledge the invaluable contribution of Mr Clarke.
SRC Camp 2014 By Danny Di Quattro At the start of Term 2, the SRC went camping at Morrisset. After working hard representing the school, this was a great chance to take time out to strengthen their team. The SRC enjoyed activities such as Mud world, the Leap of faith and the giant swing. The SRC breezed through these activities by working collaboratively and conquering their fears. Students particularly enjoyed the messiness of Mud World. Particular thanks must go to Mr. MacRae, Miss Di Gesu and Mr. Pa for assisting and accompanying the SRC on the camp. The entire SRC look forward to being able to use the skills and teamwork developed on the camp to deliver continued service to Merrylands High Students.
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Our Students Have Questions for Premier Mike Baird By Amore Ghamraoui & Alexzandria Frangie A few weeks ago, a group of our students from the student leadership team attended a special community forum with Premier Mike Baird. Merrylands High School was the only local school invited to participate in the event. Our students had the opportunity to ask the premier questions about how political decisions would affect them. The issues raised ranged from feeling safe in the community to changes to the GST and how that would impact low income families. These students did a great job at representing Merrylands High school and demonstrated that our youth have the ability to think through and respond to complex issues that affect them, their peers and their community.
Yr 11 student Vignesha Livingstone was one of a number of MHS students who posed thoughtful questions to Premier Baird at the “Fair Go For The West” Forum
You can watch the full Q&A session on Channel 7 by following the links below: http://tinyurl.com/k8svor8 & http://tinyurl.com/kxy5vh8
Getting Involved in Democracy By Yagmur Tekin, Gohkan Tezgor & Su Koyunlar MHS student leaders, Angela Omari and Heba Niem were recently given the opportunity to meet with the federal Member of Parliament representing Parramatta, the Honourable Julie Owens MP. Angela and Heba met with the MP in her office to discuss how recent political decisions would affect them and their community. Funding for public schools, university fees and support for low income families were big issues on the table. ‘It was a really interesting day, and I agree with a lot of what she had to say,’ said Heba. ‘There are some things which are going to negatively impact us, so it’s important that we were able to talk about what we can do in response to these changes.’ Democracy is more than just about voting, and it’s great to see our students taking the initiative to speak up on issues that matter to them.
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Staff and Students Shine at Education Conference By Zoe Fletcher and Jessica Vidler On the 4th of June, high school Principals and Deputies from all over the state attended a professional development conference at the Liverpool Catholic Club. The event saw Merrylands’s Deputies Ms Giudice and Mr Prasad introduce an online resource that they had developed over many months of extremely hard work. This resource will become a valuable support for Deputy Principals across the state, in both High Schools and Primary Schools. As part of the event, two dance groups from Merrylands High, Ms Gentili’s dance ensemble and the Aboriginal dance group, performed for the
Mr Prasad (Left)and Ms Guidice (Right) with project consultant and close friend of MHS Lindy Taylor (Centre) as they introduced a new online resource for schools across the state
attendees. ‘I personally thought it was great experience performing for all these people who dedicate their time to work so hard in our schools’, said Zoe from the Aboriginal dance group. The event was a huge success, and we commend our talented staff and students.
Looking Forward to the Future By Su Koyunlar & Lamis Saleh 2014 again sees students from Merrylands High school participating in the exciting initiative supported by the University of Western Sydney called ‘Fast Forward’. The program sees students from all over the state meet at UWS to learn leadership skills, discover what university is like, and to be given career guidance from university students and lecturers. The Fast Forward program helps students prepare for the future. Importantly, it
The Yr 10 Fast Forward Group for 2014
shows them the options available. As the program organisers said ‘your ATAR is not the end of the world’. This is a great initiative that Merrylands students have been participating in over a number of years, and students continue to find it an extremely beneficial program.
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Mock Trial Team on the Case Again! In our first year in the competition and after only one practice round Merrylands High School recently won the first round of the “Mock Trial” competition against Blacktown Girls High School by 11 points (177 to 166). This saw us ranked 40th out of 154 schools competing in NSW. The team did well to win the first scoring round and we learned a lot from competing in both the first rounds. The second round against Penrith High School was again a close scoring game that saw us narrowly missing out by 5 points (221 to 216). The magistrate was highly impressed with the
Clockwise from top left: Moustafa Berjaoui, Hovsep Amirzaian, Grace Harley, magistrate, Gamze Firlayis, Luke Cicciarello, Ms Hrncic, Ebru Dik, Rachael Morrissey, Shazia Nadan, Ms Krunic.
spirited debate that our team brought to the competition and gave us plenty of constructive feedback for our next round in Week 8 of the term.
A special mention to Taga Paa who obtained a coach for us, Mr Dilan Mahendra, a practising barrister, whose guidance and support was invaluable to the team in preparing for a difficult round against a formidable opponent.
Students get ‘hands on’ with Geography By Zoe Fletcher Recently, a group of Year 11 Geography students accompanied by Mr Wark, Ms Hrncic and Mr Viuya went on a Fieldtrip to Wamberal beach and Terrigal to study coastal landforms. Students took part in many hands on activities, collecting sand samples, observing plants and dunes and examining rocks and cliff formations. Through their findings, students learnt about how the coastal environment is shaped by natural forces as well as by humans. Overall, the students had a great experience and learnt a lot about how the actions of humans can impact on the environment.
Racheal Morrissey, Bradley Hogan and Ryan Govender investigating the sand dune vegetation at Wamberal
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Merrylands in the Media
The ‘Parramatta Sun’ shines the spotlight on Merrylands students enrolled in university summer school courses
Our brilliant students and their insightful questions to Premier Mike Bard caught the attention of the ‘Parramatta Sun’
Yr 12 student Cindy Balaz featured in the ‘Parramatta Sun’
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Student Health Information We welcome information from parents about your child's health, even if you are not requesting specific support from our school. Schools asks for medical information when you enrol your child. It’s also important that you let us know if your child’s health care needs change or if a new health condition develops. Information about allergies, medical conditions such as asthma and diabetes and other health care related issues (including prior conditions such as medical procedures in the last 12 months) should be provided to the school by parents. Please provide this information in writing to the principal. This will greatly assist our school in planning to support your child’s health and wellbeing. Please also remember to notify staff in the school office of any changes to your contact details or to the contact details of other people nominated as emergency contacts. We appreciate your assistance in this regard and assure you that any information you provide the school will be stored securely and will only be used or disclosed in order to support your son or daughter’s health needs or as otherwise required by law.
Traffic Safety Merrylands High School, our parents, the community, Holroyd Council and the Police work together on road and traffic isues to ensure our local roads and school environment is as safe as possible for our students. The information in the table below is provided by the Police to illustrate the traffic issues of most concern around NSW schools. Offence
Minimum Fine
Minimum loss of Demerit Points
$405
2
If you double park
$304
2
If you park illegally in a: NO STOPPING zone (School) NO PARKING zone (School) BUS ZONE (School)
$304 $169 $304
2 2 2
If you make an illegal U turn
$304
If you exceed 40km/h in a school zone
$177
3
If you exceed 40km/h when passing a school bus with flashing “wig wag” lights
$106
1
If you stop or park on or near: A Pedestrian Crossing A Children’s Crossing Any marked Foot Crossing
2
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Term 2 - November 2014
P.C. Financial Services
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Join the P.C. Financial Services Customer Referral Program and we will donate $400 to Merrylands High School for every referred loan that settles. P.C. Financial Services Proudly Suporting MERRYLANDS HIGH SCHOOL Peter Pisani – Finance Broker Mobile - 0419 411 513 Telephone – 02 9709 2399 Email – pisani.pc@optusnet.com.au www.pcfinancialservices.org Diploma of Financial Services - FNS50504Finance/Mortgage Broking Management